'What if we take a risk?'

 

“Once we believe in ourselves, we can risk curiosity, wonder, spontaneous delight, or any experience that reveals the human spirit.” – e. e. cummings

 

Born in Cambridge, MA in October of 1894, Edward Estlin "E. E." Cummings, who died in 1962, wrote nearly 3,000 poems; 2 autobiographical novels; 4 plays, and several essays and was one of the eminent “voices” of 20^th century literature.  While his poetry often dealt with love and nature, he said some, “were just for fun.”  For Saturday’s Poem, here is cummings’

                                        If

If freckles were lovely, and day was night,
And measles were nice and a lie warn’t a lie,
Life would be delight,—
But things couldn’t go right
For in such a sad plight
I wouldn’t be I.

If earth was heaven and now was hence,
And past was present, and false was true,
There might be some sense
But I’d be in suspense
For on such a pretense
You wouldn’t be you.

If fear was plucky, and globes were square,
And dirt was cleanly and tears were glee
Things would seem fair,—
Yet they’d all despair,
For if here was there
We wouldn’t be we.